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No -- Win2k was an NT-based OS, while ME was still based on the 9x series.

NT was the first OS I used that didn't rely upon DOS as a disk operating system in the traditional way of former Windows machines, but it still did bootstrap from a form of it, as does XP

NTLDR (the NT LoaDeR, NT's bootloader) isn't DOS, and neither is the "command prompt" program in later versions of Windows (cmd.exe). It's been made to resemble DOS, but it's fairly fundamentally different, reflecting its reduced r&#244;le in the running of the OS -- it's no longer an operating system, for a start, and runs as a program under Windows. The thing I'm unsure about is whether NT still had actual DOS, despite no longer booting from it.

Well, it does get confusing. When the machine starts to boot up, you can go into the disk operating system (DOS) rather than launch the GUI, but it isn't DOS (isn't identified as a DOS version) and still has some GUI elements. The command prompt is often thought of as DOS, but it isn't the disk operating system. At the same time, it exhibits many of the capabilities (and in NT, considerably more) of DOS, the historic OS.

Well, it does get confusing. When the machine starts to boot up, you can go into the disk operating system (DOS) rather than launch the GUI, but it isn't DOS (isn't identified as a DOS version) and still has some GUI elements.

You mean TUI elements? Is this in NT?

The command prompt is often thought of as DOS, but it isn't the disk operating system.

This is where the confusion arises: in Win9x, it is. The "command prompt" is just a way to interact with an actual DOS shell.

To me the confusion arises in MS's having named some rather important things after their generic designations. The two biggest examples of this are using Windows for their versions of windows and DOS for their early versions of disk operating systems.